Neil Sorens has written an interesting article for Gamasutra about the place of stories in “sandbox” games. I’m not sure that I would put grand strategy games like Civ and Europa Universalis in the sandbox category, but that’s a semantic distinction I don’t want to dwell on for the moment.
Like many observers, he pays homage to the stories that gamers tell themselves. But, he notes, not all gamers are thinking in narrative terms because the game doesn’t help them think in that way.
The problem that sandbox games have is that their stories are not obvious. The average player, when asked about the story in a sandbox game, would probably reply, “There isn’t one.” Since we know this to be untrue, the disconnection between player and story must be an issue of presentation. Players do not realize they are creating a story because the game does not communicate the story in a way they understand.
So he is most interested in having developers create in game tools that both make stories easier to see, and, most importantly, provide feedback to the gamer through narrative devices. AARs, after all, require a dedication and discipline that few gamers have, and take a lot of time to do well. Sorens notes that Europa Universalis 3 has a rudimentary “what your monarchs did” end game summary, but it doesn’t really serve much story telling purpose. In fact, reading it gives a very poor understanding of what the completed game was about or what happened beyond colonization and conquest. It’s an outline, not a story.
His advice for sandbox stories, with excerpts from the article:
1. Present data and events in narrative form
“O great and bloodthirsty one, now that we have crushed our ancient enemy, the Carthaginians, in the Thousand Year War (2200 BC – 1240BC), our military is unrivaled in the known world! Perhaps our invincible Berserkers should be loosed next against the mewling Zulu in response to their arrogant demands for our gold.”
2. Present analysis of cause, effect, and possible future consequences.
For example, SimCity may tell a player that they are out of funds. But how did that happen? Did the player splurge on an airport without enough reserve funds to cover a budget deficit? Did the city borrow so much that it could no longer keep up with interest payments?
3. Focus the player’s attention on the “cool stuff”
The complexity and open-endedness of the typical sandbox game means that designers must be creative and cover wider ground in detecting these noteworthy situations. For example, in the game Hearts of Iron 2, a player with the handle “Comrade Brian” infamously lost a fleet of Soviet transports to the Tibetan Navy, quite an unusual circumstance given that Tibet was both landlocked and militarily inadequate.
4. Use goals to provide dramatic structure
Objectives must be designed to be story-worthy, as well. “Collect (or kill) 100 foozles,” with no apparent purpose or connection to anything else in the game, does not lend itself particularly well to a story. However, “Collect 100 Philistine foreskins in order to marry the King’s daughter” could be more intriguing.
5. Give characters human qualities
Contrast [the Total War system] with the one in the Civilization series, where the player is represented by an immortal, abstract avatar with no in-game presence other than a title, a name, and two generic personality traits. Even the personality traits are abstract and un-human; they have no effect on the game beyond the pre-ordained mathematical benefits. The citizens of the cities are no help, either; their humanity is a flimsy façade that does next to nothing to cover their true identity: One Unit of Productiveness.
I’ll have more to say about this article and this issue in a few days, but I thought I’d highlight it since it’s one of the most interesting summaries of the problems and potential of strategy gaming narrative I’ve read in some time.
